Blog tour: One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz, translated by Rachel Ward

This post is part of a blog tour organised by Random Things Blog Tours. I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

‘Sixteen-year-old Frieder’s plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. In order to move up to the next school year in the autumn, he must resit his exams.

‘So, instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents’ house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.

‘On the bright side, he’ll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…

‘The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.’

In One Grand Summer, by Ewald Arenz, we spend the titular summer of 1981 in suburban West Germany with 16-year-old Friedrich (Frieder) Büchner.

Having failed his Latin and maths exams, Frieder has to stay with his rigid step-grandfather and kindly grandmother and revise for resits, instead of going on holiday with his parents and four of his siblings.

However, Frieder isn’t expected to revise all the time, and being close to home means he can see his slightly younger sister Alma (who’s doing work experience in a nursing home), best friend Johann, and Beate, a girl he’s recently met and hopes to get to know better.

It turns out to be a summer of formative experiences, including first love and heartache, youthful hijinks and consequences, being thrust into the adult world, and learning to take responsibility.

I do like a coming-of-age novel, and One Grand Summer is no exception, as it features many of the ingredients that make this theme so appealing to me. For one thing, Arenz’s vivid descriptions – expertly translated by Rachel Ward – of Frieder’s surroundings as he experiences them are highly evocative.

I was taken right back to the feelings of promise at the start (never quite fulfilled in my case – maybe that’s why I get so much pleasure from living vicariously through coming-of-age protagonists?), and sweet melancholy at the end of the school summer holidays.

Frieder may have fallen short academically, but he is by no means dull or lacking in intelligence. His narrative voice is lively and entertaining, and his descriptions of the world around him are keen, observant, and often humorous, with a particular focus on trees and birds.

He also shows curiosity about all sorts of things throughout the book, including his grandparents’ earlier lives, diagnostic procedures at the hospital where his step-grandfather works (and where Frieder gets a part-time job running errands), and other people’s experiences and perspectives.

I felt rather indignant on Frieder’s behalf that he could get kicked out of school if he failed his resits – he’s clearly very receptive to learning about things that pique his interest, and I can’t say I found maths or Latin particularly exciting or inspiring either!

Being privy to Frieder’s thoughts gave me the insight that he is a sweet and well-meaning character at heart, so when (being a teenage boy) he did poorly thought-through things that got him into trouble, I couldn’t think too badly of him.

While I couldn’t personally identify with this impulsivity and recklessness, I could very much relate to his fear that he’d permanently ruined his life and wouldn’t be able to come back from his actions. Everything feels so all-or-nothing at that age, and Frieder is surprised and relieved when he shares his troubles with his grandparents and they actually help, rather than condemn him.

Frieder is also able to call on his newly-developed inner and outer resources when Johann, reeling from the recent death of his father, starts acting in strange and frightening ways. Frieder may be the main character, but his best friend, sister, and girlfriend are also having new, scarily grown-up experiences.

Another, related coming-of-age theme that emerges in One Grand Summer is that Frieder gets to know his adult relatives as people with trajectories of their own. His grandmother’s and step-grandfather’s stories, of which the Second World War is no small part, are interesting in themselves, but it’s also gratifying to see Frieder relate his life to theirs, and develop a nuanced understanding of their circumstances and accommodations.

One Grand Summer is a bittersweet, poignant, and authentic coming-of-age story.